404
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
ties, to decide claims arising under § 1983. Section 1983 creates no new substantive rights, see Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization, 441 U. S. 600, 617 (1979); it merely provides a federal cause of action for the violation of federal rights that are independently established either in the Federal Constitution or in federal statutory law. Despite the absence of any mention of state courts in § 1983, we have never questioned the jurisdiction of such courts to provide the relief it authorizes.4
Moreover, as our decision in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. Neztsosie, 526 U. S. 473 (1999), demonstrates, the absence of an express statutory provision for removal to a federal court upon the motion of the defendant provides no obstacle whatsoever to the granting of equivalent relief by a federal district court. See id., at 485 ("Injunction against further litigation in tribal courts would in practical terms give the same result as a removal . . ."). "Why, then, the congressional silence on tribal courts? . . . [I]nadvertence seems the most likely [explanation] . . . . Now and then silence is not pregnant." Id., at 487. There is really no more reason for treating the silence in § 1983 concerning tribal courts as an objection to tribal-court jurisdiction over such claims than there is for treating its silence concerning state courts as an objection to state-court jurisdiction.
In sum, I agree with the interpretation of this federal statute that is endorsed by the Solicitor General of the United States.
4 The authority of state courts to hear § 1983 suits was not always so uncontroversial. See, e. g., Note, Limiting the Section 1983 Action in the Wake of Monroe v. Pape, 82 Harv. L. Rev. 1486, 1497, n. 62 (1969) ("State courts have puzzlingly hesitated on whether they have jurisdiction over § 1983 claims as such, and no case has been found in which a state court granted relief under the section. In one case a state supreme court adopted the expedient of disavowing a position on jurisdiction while denying recovery on the merits").
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